Have you ever punched in directions
on your car’s GPS, hit “go,” then diligently
steered the route the machine on your
dashboard is dictating to you? Had you
paused and thought it through, you might
know a better way to get there, right?
Well, your boat’s navigation equipment
can also only do so much of the thinking
for you. Consider that jetty inconveniently located between your position and
the mark inside the harbor? The penalty
for not paying attention and preparing
properly may result in you running hard
aground on the jetty – or worse.

Technology can only take you so far.
You, skipper, need to know what your
boat is and isn’t capable of. Is your vessel,
to put it in legal insurance terms, fit for
its intended voyage? Is your boat suited
to navigating offshore? How much rough
weather can your boat handle? Are you
GPS- and radar-equipped?

One thing very obvious to people in
my vocation is that the primary cause
of most, if not all, accidents involving
collisions (hitting something moving)
and allisions (hitting something stationary) is human error, poor decision-making, and complacency.

What you can see

Day markers, buoys, jetties, other vessels,bridges, big rocks, granite ledges, andsandy beaches are all hazards that are vis-ible. Is a day marker a navigational haz-ard? It shouldn’t be because its sole pur-pose is to notify a skipper of a real hazardahead. But if the speed is fast enough andthe lookout not good enough, this aidcan suddenly become a hazard.

I’m big on strict adherence toCOLREGS (the InternationalRegulations for Preventing Collisionsat Sea), or as you know them, the “rulesof the road.” COLREGS require you toproceed at “safe speed” (Rule 6) so thatyou can “take proper and effective actionto avoid collision and be stopped withinthe distance appropriate to the prevailingcircumstances and conditions.” They alsorequire a proper lookout (Rule 5), whichcalls for both seeing and hearing as wellas other means, “so as to make a fullappraisal of the situation and of the riskof collision.”Off the coast of New England, thereis an interesting navigational spot affec-tionately called “The Graveyard.” Thisis an area just south of Massachusetts’Elizabeth Islands chain, where the cur-rent flows north to south, through the“holes” between the islands and BuzzardsBay and Vineyard Sound. This currenthas set many a vessel attempting passagethrough Vineyard Sound onto the rockybeaches of the islands. The bottom lineis simple: You need to know your realcourse. Don’t trust only one instrument;verify by using your compass and chart.Today’s navigation equipment is amaz-ingly accurate. We now take GPS forgranted and are entering the world of self-driving cars. Interestingly enough, we inthe marine universe have had autopilot foryears. Punch in coordinates to your GPSchartplotter and voilà! Let the boat takeyou there! What could possibly go wrong?Well, years ago, I investigated a claimin which two sailboats collided in densefog off the coast of Maine. They wereobviously both traveling at slow speed,but were heading in opposite directions,toward each other. The problem was thatthey had both donethe same thing thatmorning: They hadplugged waypointsinto their naviga-tion and autopilotsystems using thesame charts. Theyhit stem to stemat dead center.Among the rea-sons causing thiscollision: Neither boat sounded fog sig-nals, neither posted a proper lookout, andboth overrelied on the technology thatput them on a collision course.

What you can’t see

I’ve found very few reasonable excuses forhitting visible obstructions – sunglassesor not. Sometimes there are unchartedhazards floating just a few feet under thesurface that are unavoidable. I’ve inves-tigated boats hitting pilings, trees, cargocontainers, submarines (yes, submarines),and even whales. Now, those are real,Are you plottingyour way to disas-ter? When plottingyour course into anunfamiliar harbor,you may wantto use a varia-tion of that greatcarpenter’s motto,“Measure twice,plot once.”Cape May Point and the captain did notclearly understand the currents in the area,which set the vessel toward the beach. Itbroke up in the surf in just a few hours.